MONROE — Newtown High School's girls' and boys' cross county teams went to Wolfe Park in Monroe to race on the trail around Great Hollow Lake against the host Panthers as well as Bethel on September 22; the NHS boys also took on Bassick of Bridgeport. It was a slightly shorter course than the usual 3.1-mile 5K miles due to mis-marked trails, coaches said.

The Nighthawk girls defeated both Masuk and Bethel by scores of 20-42, and the Nighthawk boys beat Bassick 15-50 and Masuk 20-43, and lost 18-37 to Bethel.

In the girls' race, the Hawks had the third- through eighth-place finishers, led by Keeley Ferriter in a time of 19:45.95, followed by Eleanor Smith in 20:19.08, Audrey McLean in 20:35.70, Nyla Peterson in 20:54.90, Annie Fattore clocking in at 21:00.15, and Lahja Kurjiaka coming across the finish line in 21:10.36. Maddie Britton was 11th in 22:11.23.

On the boys' side, Owen Mulcahey was fourth in 18:29.47 and the Hawks took positions eight through 13. Ali Elawa finished the race in 18:56.87, Aarav Shetty timed in at 19:15.25, Bryce Taylor finished in 19:15.53, Marc Cartas had a time of 19:15.76, Orion Lowery finished in 19:16.04, and Duncan Kolb completed the course in 19:16.38.

Both Nighthawk squads will visit Immaculate of Danbury to race the host Mustangs along with Harding of Bridgeport and Weston on September 29; the girls race at 4:30 pm and the boys at 5. Newtown has its only home meet, on the Fairfield Hills trails near Reed School, on Tuesday, October 6 when Joel Barlow of Redding, Notre Dame Prep of Fairfield, and Pomperaug of Southbury come to town; the boys race at 4:30 followed by the girls at 5.